State panel: PTSD, migraines OK for medical pot, but not anxiety, diabetes

As the nation’s first highly regulated, for-profit market of medical marijuana, Colorado has served as a model for other states seeking to get into the industry. Illinois lawmakers look to build upon the Colorado's experience, where most anyone with a long-ago injury can get a doctor’s approval to purchase up to two ounces of pot at a time.

The recommendations, if approved by the Illinois Department of Public Health, would significantly increase the list of conditions for which medical pot can be accessed. As it stands, sufferers of about three-dozen disorders and diseases, including AIDS, cancer and lupus, can be eligible for medical marijuana — though a series of delays has so far rendered medicinal pot unavailable in the marketplace.

Industry advocates said the expansion would be a great relief for suffering patients, and could make the difference between success and failure for the program.

“That could greatly change the potential market,” said Chris Walsh, editor of Marijuana Business Daily. “Any move to expand it would be huge for the business community.”

Lawmakers approved the use of medical marijuana starting last year, but the product is not expected to be available until this summer. In part because Illinois has one of the most restrictive lists of qualifying medical conditions in the country, only about 2,000 people have been approved so far to get medical cannabis.

The advisory board, made up of medical professionals, patients and a caregiver, appeared to want to avoid situations like those in Colorado or California, where broad qualifying conditions like chronic pain open up the potential for medical marijuana to be exploited by healthy people.

The Illinois Medical Cannabis Advisory Board approves marijuana for medicinal uses on May 4, 2015. Now the Illinois Department of Public Health must make a decision. (WGN TV)

The Illinois Medical Cannabis Advisory Board approves marijuana for medicinal uses on May 4, 2015. Now the Illinois Department of Public Health must make a decision. (WGN TV)

Along those lines, the board rejected anxiety as a qualifying condition because members said it was too broad a category. Diabetes was also rejected, as the panel said there was no evidence that marijuana lowed blood sugar.

But the board did recommend that those diagnosed with PTSD be allowed to use marijuana after hearing from two military veterans and a young woman who said she suffered from the stress disorder after being in abusive relationships as a teen.

“This one is very straightforward in my mind,” said Dr. Eric Christoff, a general internist and HIV specialist at Northwestern Medicine who sits on the advisory board. “The risk of not correctly, in a patient-centered way, addressing PTSD, is death or suicide, so the stakes are high.”

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that 11 to 20 percent of veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and 15 percent of Vietnam vets, suffered from PTSD. Twelve other states and Washington, D.C., have authorized the use of medical marijuana for PTSD, according to the Marijuana Policy Project.

Anecdotal evidence suggests low to moderate doses of marijuana are useful for relieving the symptoms of PTSD, according to the advocacy group Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access.

However, the VA stated online that controlled studies have not been conducted to evaluate the safety or effectiveness of medical marijuana for PTSD.

Some research does show marijuana use may reduce PTSD symptoms in the short-term. However, data suggest that continued use of marijuana among individuals with PTSD may lead to marijuana tolerance, addiction and psychiatric problems, the VA reported.

Cannabis is the most commonly abused drug among veterans treated at the VA with PTSD, with more than 40,000 vets having both problems as of fiscal year 2014, the agency stated.

Marijuana remains illegal under federal law with no acknowledged medical use, and the VA prohibits its doctors and other providers from recommending the substance for patients.

PTSD affects not only veterans, but millions of Americans who’ve suffered trauma, according to the VA.

Antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs are used to treat PTSD along with various psychiatric therapies, with varying success.

The advisory board also voted in favor of adding two nerve pain conditions, periphery polyneuropathy and diabetic neuropathy, to the list.

Those conditions are difficult to treat, said board member James Champion, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and has himself been approved to use medical pot.

“The feeling that your feet are frozen in a block of ice or like they're on fire is not a pleasant feeling at all,” he said. “I know neuropathy is very painful.”

While some on the panel expressed concern that osteoarthritis was also too broad a category, supporters said there needs to be trust in the medical professionals who would recommend medical marijuana.

“I don't think we need to be overly concerned about opening the floodgates,” Christoff said.

A new analysis projects that revenues from the first year of marijuana sales in Illinois will come in at $15 million to $30 million, but said its future remains uncertain because it’s only a four-year pilot program.

The Marijuana Business Factbook 2015, published by Marijuana Business Daily, estimated that Illinois will have 10,000 to 20,000 patients by the end of the first year of the program, anticipating a spike in patients once the product becomes available.

“If they get a lot of new conditions and everything works, this program will be healthy and will likely be renewed,” said Walsh, the editor. “If it’s kept tight and small and businesses fail because the patient base isn’t big enough, that’s going to hurt its chances in the long run.”